Originally Posted by
nz6666
I have two American express/master duo credit cards that can earn Avios points when spending. I have earned more than 40k points after about one year. Ok, I went to Avios website, search London to Dubai in June, the price is 40k Avios points plus £311 cash. The cash part is explained as tax, fees etc. I can't believe it so I went to skyscanner and searched the same route and got the cheapest is 299 inc tax. So that means I have to pay more using Avios option!
I can't believe how rubbish are these Avios points. I chose these credit cards because I heard they can earn the points which can be used to buy flight tickets. Have anyone used Avios points for flights?
I fly LHR-DXB for leisure at least twice a year. I've had these pains too! I've spoken of these pains to BA customer relations many times (assuming I could actually book a redemption seat). BA's attitude was quite uncaring and unsympathetic, to put it mildly.
Over the last decade I've flown Emirates on the LHR-DXB route. For about the same price as the taxes you would pay on a BA redemption flight, you can fly in a nice A380 (as of a few years ago) with lovely crew and you get treated like a king/queen. And that's in economy! Plus you get Skywards miles that give you far better availability on redemption flights.
I actually look forward to an Emirates flight in economy, which is not something I can say about travelling on BA WT.
I learned from these very forums that travelling long-haul out of a London airport using Avios is financial disaster.
Having said all that, I was delighted to be able to book a short-haul LHR-EDI flight for just 35GBP and 9,000 Avios last week. So, it's not all bad. Just mostly.